Kristin Martins, Labor Doula

Finnish maternity box? What is that? You might have seen this floating around the internet lately, or maybe not. My brother in law came across this a few days ago and shared it with me knowing I would be interested in it- he was right! It is a mom in Finland who shows off a maternity box she received, for free, as all expecting Moms in Finland have the option to do so! How cool is that? Just for fun, here is a recap of what it is and my thoughts on it!

Wow! Look at that list! The bottom of the box is a mattress so baby can sleep there safely! Why did this start? Well according to this one article I found it started in the 1930’s due to high infant mortality rates and this box seemed to help that rate fall! And what else is great? Most of the items in this box are made in Finland or Finnish companies! Yay! for buying local!

Who gets the box?

This isn’t given to only certain moms that fall into a set of requirements. The onlyrequirement is a woman that is passed 154 days (a little less than 5 months) of pregnancy. Cool right? Wouldn’t it be nice if that happened here in the US? I know, I know, the number one question is- well who pays for that? Well that is not the point of this post so I won’t go into that. I will, however, talk about WHY I think it is cool and what it shows me about the “mother culture” in Finland.

The Really Cool Thing About This Box

Ok, so what I love most about this Finnish Maternity Box is that it shows support to the mothers. It shows that mothers are important. It helps mothers out. Whether or not they can’t afford to buy the items inside otherwise, are too busy or unable to get to the store to buy these items. It gives moms the necessities needed for the first few weeks of baby’s life. That has got to feel good for Mom. It takes some weight off of their shoulders and lets them relax about at least one thing because let’s face it, many moms have lots going on in there head before baby arrives. The last thing Mom really needs is to be worrying about this. In my opinion, this is great! Mothers need support! And this is a great way for mother’s to feel that support! It seems to have turned into quite the tradition as well! I love seeing all the interesting differences in pregnancy and birth all over the world!